Your joystick and how well they work with YSflight

[Crazypilot]

Buy that saitek aviator joystick.

[mitout]

Saitek Cyborg Evo Force

I've had it since mid 2010, and I have to say it's very impressive. The top area has 5 buttons, and a POV hat switch. I have the 3 black buttons, 2,3 and 4 mapped to Weapon Switch, Radar and Flare, respectively. The two goldish buttons, 5 and 6 are mapped to Gears and Flare in YS. The POV hat switch has a nice rubberized texture and it travels quite smoothly. The throttle control is quite large and easy to use, it's well positioned to use with your left hand while flying with the right hand. The stick, including the throttle, has Force Feedback, but this isn't supported by YS. Without the Force Feedback however, the stick is a bit too loose and bounces around a lot, however I think this is simply my personal preference, and some people might like this. The stick is fairly adjustable, the whole top portion of the stick can be tilted left and right, and the bottom 3 buttons, the black ones, can be tilted up and down. Finally, the hand rest can be moved up and down or switched around depending on how large your hands are and whether you're left or right handed.

FINAL RATING: 9.0/10

[Midnight Rambler]

Saitek Cyborg Evo Force

I've had it since mid 2010, and I have to say it's very impressive. The top area has 5 buttons, and a POV hat switch. I have the 3 black buttons, 2,3 and 4 mapped to Weapon Switch, Radar and Flare, respectively. The two goldish buttons, 5 and 6 are mapped to Gears and Flare in YS. The POV hat switch has a nice rubberized texture and it travels quite smoothly. The throttle control is quite large and easy to use, it's well positioned to use with your left hand while flying with the right hand. The stick, including the throttle, has Force Feedback, but this isn't supported by YS. Without the Force Feedback however, the stick is a bit too loose and bounces around a lot, however I think this is simply my personal preference, and some people might like this. The stick is fairly adjustable, the whole top portion of the stick can be tilted left and right, and the bottom 3 buttons, the black ones, can be tilted up and down. Finally, the hand rest can be moved up and down or switched around depending on how large your hands are and whether you're left or right handed.

FINAL RATING: 9.0/10

I've got the same stick minus the force feedback. Great stick, extremely good in a dogfight with the POV hat and throttle control is very smooth. I've used mine for 3 years now and it's still great. One thing I've noticed with mine was that banking is a bit twitchy when new, now that the plastic has bee grinder down a bit it is silky smooth. Deadzones are getting a little sloppy but a quick calibrate fixes it straight away. Price is also extremely fair I think, $30AUS from Harvey Norman.

FINAL RATING: 9.3/10

[Welshy]

Saitek Cyborg Evo Force

I've had it since mid 2010, and I have to say it's very impressive. The top area has 5 buttons, and a POV hat switch. I have the 3 black buttons, 2,3 and 4 mapped to Weapon Switch, Radar and Flare, respectively. The two goldish buttons, 5 and 6 are mapped to Gears and Flare in YS. The POV hat switch has a nice rubberized texture and it travels quite smoothly. The throttle control is quite large and easy to use, it's well positioned to use with your left hand while flying with the right hand. The stick, including the throttle, has Force Feedback, but this isn't supported by YS. Without the Force Feedback however, the stick is a bit too loose and bounces around a lot, however I think this is simply my personal preference, and some people might like this. The stick is fairly adjustable, the whole top portion of the stick can be tilted left and right, and the bottom 3 buttons, the black ones, can be tilted up and down. Finally, the hand rest can be moved up and down or switched around depending on how large your hands are and whether you're left or right handed.

FINAL RATING: 9.0/10

I've got the same stick minus the force feedback. Great stick, extremely good in a dogfight with the POV hat and throttle control is very smooth. I've used mine for 3 years now and it's still great. One thing I've noticed with mine was that banking is a bit twitchy when new, now that the plastic has bee grinder down a bit it is silky smooth. Deadzones are getting a little sloppy but a quick calibrate fixes it straight away. Price is also extremely fair I think, $30AUS from Harvey Norman.

FINAL RATING: 9.3/10

Again I have the same (as MR) and largely agree with what he said, for its price you can't go much wrong

FINAL RATING: 9.5/10[/quote]

[Darris XTMRage]

I actually have 2 now, one of them I rarely use.

Logitech Extreme 3D Pro



I've had the Extreme 3D Pro for a while now. It's got 12 buttons (6 on the handle and 6 on the base) along with a throttle slider, just like the Attack 3. One handy feature of the Extreme 3D Pro is that the handle twists, allowing for moving the rudder left & right. One of the downsides is that the pitch axis is always going out of line, and it pisses me off that you can't calibrate it. Also, it's made for right-handed users, which is really annoying.

7/10

Saitek PZ44 Pro Flight Yoke



The best controller I have ever used. I got it for a hefty price of $125.84 from Amazon (it was actually on sale at the time, surprisingly). It's easier to fly than the joystick, since you have 2 handles instead of one. The only problem is that it is a little over-sensitive for input, so it's very crazy to fly a fighter with this one. Flying an airliner is much easier (which is what it's made for anyways) since they aren't nearly as maneuverable as fighters.

9/10

[HawkbitAlpha]

Laptop touchpad

Useless if you plan on getting precision for anything

1/10 (AKA terrible)

Logitech Attack 3




I've had this stick for a few months now. YS had no trouble reading or running it. Throttle was very easy to control and it is quite a comfortable stick. It has 11 programmable buttons and a slider on the back which you can roll and control throttle. But after a few months the x-axis was going out of line and it's really annoying. Unfortunately the little USB plug got smashed up and now I can't use it.

8/10

Logitech Extreme 3D Pro



Just got it a few weeks ago. It gives you alot more control than the Attack. Throttle is still easy and the buttons are in more convenient places. The twist grip and view hat made flight much easier, especially with the view hat helping in dogfighting. The only downside is that the stick is shaped for right-handed users, so I have to keep it on my right side all the time.

9/10

[Crazypilot]

My joystick works great

[FrenchTOZT]

Pentablet: Fight me.
Works fine with me: I can set custom macros, and layouts, so...
Not a joy stick but I really like it: 9.6 of ten.

[Flake]

My joystick works great

[hedzup456]

Logitech Attack 3



Very nice joystick for a tight budget of 15 US dollars on http://www.tigerdirect.com. YS has no trouble reading it or finding it. It 11 buttons I haven't touched. It had some already programmed and I'm pretty happy with that for now. Throttle is very easy to control and stick in general is very comfortable. I haven't had any trouble with yet and all those buttons open up some keyboard buttons for more precise control of flaps, brakes (mine are 8), and radar. The cool part is flying an Mi-24. My friend can control the turret with the mouse while I fire missiles and rockets.

:O Same stick, but I fly (normally) civvie so no turrets xD
Button:Function
1:Fire guns (only civvie NORMALLY)
2:radar in
3:radar range out
4: Flares
5: Chat
6:RT (But I'm a smudger so i useally use . for RT)
7: Spoiler (when pressed)
8: rudder left
9:Rudder right
10: Gear toggle
11: Lights

[Shand]

back in the day i flew with:
Saitek Cyborg Evo Force
i broke one of the head buttons off early on cause i stood on it (by mistake obviously)
I'd give it 9/10, the throttle was in front of the stick, which made things a bit tricky when doing stunt flying.

Recently i've upgraded to a CYBORG X
Offical Website
It has two throttles positioned on the left of the stick, they have a lock so you can move them both at once with ease, or you can seperate them out and assign them to different things. On YS i keep them locked.
Two buttons behind the throttle allows for spoiler/brake and reverse thrust controls.
buttons on the base of the stick do gear, flaps and trim.
Buttons on head do change weapon, fire current weapon, fire flare and i broke one of the head buttons off by stepping on it (yea... exactly the same button as on the Evo!)
The POV is default moving, and the secondary slider (just below the POV) does my radar range.

I give this a 9.9: great generally, but a lil wobbly when going into a dive, perfectly secure in all other manuevures. the throttle is a bit "wobbly" but running at 97% throttle stops it jumping into AB.

I primarily bought this stick for playing IL2. so i could control multiengine planes better when one was on fire or overheating.

[mobius]

Playstation 4 Dualshock4 Controller



I got exactly this a few days ago. I don't have a PS4, just got the controller, mainly to use it with my laptop for the ps1 emulator and the games that load on it.
It's just marvelously convenient to be able to play the old games with a controller which is practically identical to the ones that those games were designed for, in full functionality: digital, analog, rumble/vibration. With the additional benefit that I can use it via bluetooth too! No more cables around and I can sit and be lazy on the couch at the other end of the room opposite the tv. ^^

I tried it with YSFlight and of course it works. The only thing that is a bit annoying is that save the left analog stick which does roll and pitch properly, the rest of the buttons are weirdly configured (eg: yaw left and right is on the right analog stick, up and down moving(!?) )

I was wondering, does any kind of joystick profile exist for YSFlight regarding the Playstation 1/2/3/4 layouts? (and other ones that imitate that layout, I have seen standard usb joysticks modeled on the PS layout)

And as I read here through the other posts in this topic, I thought why not have such joystick profiles for all the joysticks mentioned here? I know everyone might want to have a personal setup of all the buttons and functions, but then again, having something that we can decide to be 'standard setup' for a particular joystick, would be nice. Plugging the joystick in and loading the config profile, would immediately have a decent playable configuration. On that anyone can tweak and change all they want, if so desired. (Personally though, I am a lazy person and I rarely stray away from defaults. Usually default settings are thought of to be intuitive, easily accessible and in a way that minimizes finger-circus-spaghetti when playing.)

[Halliverd 1 1]

I have a mouse that I call joystick

[Neocon]

I have a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro
Pros:
It was only about $35.
It is a little better than using my keyboard number pad to fly like I did before I got it.

Cons:
The throttle is the only advantage over a PS3 controller like I used to use for a while.
When I take my hand off of it it does not stay centered.
I have to unplug it from my computer because it keeps Windows from turning off the monitor because of constantly registering movement.
The button layout is ok if you have it centered in front of you, but there isn't enough room between me and my monitor to have it without throwing my keyboard into the floor, which isn't going to happen.
The stick is stiff for actual maneuvering, even though it is sloppy at neutral.

3/10 would absolutely recommend.


I used to have a generic PS3 controller.
Pros:
Easy to assign buttons through YSF.
Never had a problem with it keeping Windows from turning off the monitor.
Smoother thumb stick movements.
Plenty of buttons.

Cons:
It had a cord.
It Didn't have a throttle.

8/10 would not recommend.

[HawkbitAlpha]

BUMP! This is the first time I've gotten a new model of stick in over a decade, so I felt like bringing this topic back to add the new stick to the pile. That, and update my thoughts on the trooper, over 10 years later:

Logitech Extreme 3D Pro

Just got it a few weeks ago. It gives you alot more control than the Attack. Throttle is still easy and the buttons are in more convenient places. The twist grip and view hat made flight much easier, especially with the view hat helping in dogfighting. The only downside is that the stick is shaped for right-handed users, so I have to keep it on my right side all the time.

9/10

Everything I said here still holds up, and in fact, I would say the X3D is the perfect stick for YS in terms of design, regardless of what kind of flying you want to do. It's cheap, has a nice spread of buttons on the top (I keep smoke on the thumb button!), a solidly flat base, and most importantly for me, a nice, snappy recentering spring that makes pulling fast, precise maneuvers a breeze. In other words: I wouldn't be able to fly YS aerobatics were it not for this bad boy.

The only problem, though... they're not all that durable. The one I had in that last post above lasted for an impressive 5 years (2012-2017), and my current one has been serving me well since early 2020. Both of them have developed the same problems with loss of rudder stability, but for the time being, setting my rudder deadzone fairly high in YS has been enough to mitigate that problem. But with that said, that leads us to my new tool of the trade:

Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro



Just picked this puppy up from the post office this morning. Its recentering is a little bit of a loose feel for me, but then again, any stick would probably feel loose for me now after using only the X3D for a decade. You can definitely tell that it comes from a more primitive time for controller design (1995, to be exact), with bits like the throttle wheel and diamond spread of base buttons, but what the Precision Pro lacks in features, it more than makes up for with durability: these babies run on optical sensors, and that reduction in moving parts gives them a longer lifespan than potentiometer-based sticks like the X3D. They're also very cheap thanks to their age - I was able to pick this one up for just $23 (including shipping) on eBay.

(Though, if you want to pick one up for yourself, be warned: these things are so old that they still use gameport connectors, and the early run models don't support USB at all. If you want to get one, be sure that it's tagged X03-57540, the USB-compatible version, and that you have a gameport-to-USB adapter for it.)

I haven't gotten to use this one too much yet, but initial flight testing in YS is looking very promising. Will definitely have to come back and give it a number rating soon.